Another vote here for AAS! With our previous program, my 8 year old would do wonderfully on spelling tests but would flop at spelling in other assignments. I am just finishing up level 1 of AAS with her, and I am just so impressed by the program and how well she is doing with it.

It would only be a supplement, but my kids learned a ton of world geography in elementary just by working Geo Puzzles each week: http://www.rainbowresource.com/searchspring.php?q=geo+puzzles

It isn't spiral, but Math Mammoth is a great supplement for MUS...

These remind me of the book ​Vocabulary Cartoons which I highly recommend! Something about the funny cartoons really helped to cement word meanings for my kids. It is also much more affordable: http://www.rainbowresource.com/product/Vocabulary+Cartoons+%28Elementary+Edition%29/008804/72bcbb124e5292f81dcb9746?subject=8&category=1951 HTH! Diane

I have to echo Halcyon's praise for CNN Student News! Both of my middle schoolers look forward to it every day, and I'm impressed by how much they know about current events now! Other hits this year are: Atelier Art - art is FINALLY getting done at my house now! IEW Medieval History Writing Lessons - ds11 is doing really well with it Human Odyssey - a big hit with both of my middle schoolers Tour a Country - dd8 is LOVING this program put out by CHC The Sentence Family - another fave of dd8! Lightening Literature 2 - dd8 is testing the program and so far we are both in love with it Figuratively Speaking - dd13 and ds11 are both having fun with this in conjunction with LL7 After taking a break from MCT and MM last year, we are back with those programs again. Being away from them has made me appreciate how really awesome they are - and the kids agree! :hurray:

Another vote for MM. When we used MUS, I would add in lessons from the same grade in MM so we could cover topics not addressed in MUS (or to more thoroughly cover those that were addressed).

I have been wanting this - so glad I waited to buy! Just downloaded it to my Mac for 49 cents! :hurray:

Many thanks to all of you for your responses! Based on your positive experiences, I now have it narrowed down to this or Tablet Class. Going to poke around Tablet Class a bit to examine the program and then have dd watch the online videos for both programs to see which one she "clicks" with. I just want this decision made so we can move forward!

So we are one month into the new school year, and I am ready to chuck my current algebra plan for my 8th grade dd. After looking over several texts, I went with Lial's for Algebra I since the explanations in the text seemed so clear to me. Things started out fine when I started dd in it last spring, but she is now requiring more hand holding this year (and I already have too many hands to hold around here in other subjects!). I think she is also overwhelmed by the lengthy text and tons of problems in each section. Even just assigning the odds and breaking up the lesson over a couple of days is not helping. I think she needs to move into something that has an instructor actually teaching the material and perhaps a different presentation than Lial's. She does okay in math, but she has always been my language arts kid so I would definitely not describe her as "mathy." In looking at online courses, I keep coming back to Derek Owens. I like his presentation of the material and the fact that he grades the homework. I guess I'm just wondering: 1) How often do students submit homework? How lengthy are the homework sets? 2) He says on the web site that scanned images of the graded homework are returned. I thought I read somewhere that you receive a grade for homework but not any indication which problems were incorrect? I wonder if that is still the case though since I would imagine the scanned image of the returned homework would indicate which problems were incorrect? 3) Although he doesn't require you to buy the text, is it possibly still a good idea so that students could have additional practice problems? I really appreciate any advice you have to offer. This particular dd is feeling very stressed with her large workload this year, and I really need to find some ways to ease the burden a bit for her! Diane

Oh that is so cute!!!

Thanks Tara! This does look good! :hurray:

Tara - when you left WWS, what did you switch to? I'm very tempted to abandon my plan to move on to WWS 2 next month, but I have no idea where to go from here? ???

I think with every year of homeschooling that goes by I get more and more confident about tossing stuff early on that isn't going to work! In past years, I would try to hang on to something (even if it had "doomed" spelled across its forehead) in an effort to somehow make it work. Now I can more clearly see what will ultimately be a failure and move on! Fortunately, this year I've only needed to pitch Evan Moor Daily Science (it was only going to be a supplement, and I had only printed out a week or two worth from Teacher Filebox so I don't feel too terrible about it). WWS is also driving us bananas here, so this is in need of major tweaking! DD13 and I are both strong writers, and neither one of us can stand the research chapters near the end. So glad that I didn't start my rising 6th grader in it this year. He is weak in language arts, so the latter part of WWS would send him jumping off a cliff! DD wants to know why on earth they would make middle school kids do research from books from the early 1900s. Going to take a page from Chrysalis Academy's playbook and just use WWS1 as a guide in our own research projects. Makes so much sense - I have no idea why it didn't occur to me! Still trying to decide if I should cancel my order for WWS2 - but then I would have to do major tweaking with her writing this year because I have no idea what I would replace it with!!! :willy_nilly:

We do the exact same thing - one lesson per day with only 1/2 to 2/3 of the problems assigned. If the lesson is difficult or long though, we spend two days on it.

I bought each of my kids their own copies of Nature Connection and we began the Sept.chapter today. I NEVER get around to nature studies, but I may actually accomplish it this year with the help of this book. It gave us just enough structure so we had a plan when starting our walk, but enough flexibility to make it easy and non-stressful!

I believe it would more easily replace their reading comprehension than their Language of God book. HTH!

I used MCT two years ago, left it for the same reasons you listed, and now I'm returning to it this year. After going through some other grammar programs last year, I can now appreciate how unique and valuable of a program it is!

I resisted reading this thread since I just ordered the WWE student pages. Gave into temptation, took a look at the samples, and immediately placed an order. This looks perfect for us! My dd was always annoyed that the lit selections in WWE were only snippets rather than the full stories. She will be thrilled with this!

Terrific! We'll do ML 1 but use 4Practice 2. Thanks for the help!

My dd did MCT Grammar Voyage in 6th and Analytical Grammar in 7th. I know that the AG folks say you should be done with grammar now, but I would really like to take one more swipe at it with Magic Lens in 8th. In looking at the practice books for ML 1 and 2, my dd really prefers the practice book that is supposed to be used for ML 2 since it uses sentences from classic lit. If we are not using the MCT vocab program, does it really matter which practice book we use with ML 1?

Another vote for Veritas Press! I bought the Charlotte's Web and Winnie the Pooh guides. They look very manageable for second grade and include some cute hands-on projects which my dd will love. :hurray:

I tried Spelling Power in the past, but I grew weary of giving spelling "tests" several times a week. I felt like Spelling Workout was just busy work with very little retention. We are going with Spelling Plus in the fall - I really like the look of it! I just need to cover the rule with them on Monday and then they can practice their words through the week in a variety of ways (i.e. write them in cursive one day, alphabetize them on the next day, use them in a sentence on the next day).

I agree that Spelling Plus would be a perfect match. Lists are organized by grade with an explanation of the rule for each list. You could then choose what you want your dd to do with the words each day. I'm planning to use it with my ds next year in this exact way.

Anyone? :bigear:

I think this is the final plan... Math - Lial's Algebra Grammar - Finished AG this year, so just going to keep skills fresh with DGP Vocabulary - Caesar's English with my 6th grade ds; Sadlier Oxford Vocabulary Workshop Literature - Figuratively Speaking; Lightning Literature 7 with my 6th grade ds Writing - WWS2 Religion - Faith and Life 8 History - Human Odyssey Vol. 2 with Student Pages and various historical fiction reading Science - Physical Science class at co-op French - So You Really Want to Learn French (finish book 1 and begin book 2) Latin - Lively Latin with my 6th grade ds Logic - Art of Argument, Mind Benders Art - Art class with teacher Music - Piano